How Reform Hopes To Win Over Young Female Voters
'Women for Reform' panel at Reform UK conference, September 2025 (Alamy)
4 min read
Thousands of Reform UK members flocked to Birmingham this weekend for the party's annual conference, after a year that saw it win a key by-election from Labour, take control of 12 councils and two mayoralties. The mood at the NEC was one of huge optimism.
As part of its successes in the last year, Reform had women such as MP Sarah Pochin and Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns elected. Last month the party launched a 'Women for Reform' campaign to highlight these successes and ramp up its efforts to win over women.
The data appears to support claims that they are making progress. Polling by More in Common over the summer revealed that while Reform supporters remain more likely to be men than women, the gap has shrunk – from 1.4 men for every woman at the last election to 1.2 currently.
At a fringe event in Birmingham on Friday, More in Common executive director Luke Tryl said the changes mean Labour is now a more male party than Reform.
Reform is keen to make headway with young women in particular. During the conference, 18-year-old Reform councillor Sienna Churcher was given a spot on the main stage during a 'Women for Reform' panel event and garnered huge applause from the audience.
Another notable conference-goer that fit this description over the weekend was Isabelle Farage, the Reform leader's 19-year-old daughter. She was spotted taking part in The Daily Express quiz on Friday evening, talking to fellow attendees and even chipping in to contribute answers to questions about her father.
"Women sometimes see politics as not for them"
Laila Cunningham, a Westminster councillor who defected from the Tories this year, told PoliticsHome that Reform was for "those who feel silenced" and "the mums, the daughters, the sisters, who are so tired of feeling unsafe and de-prioritised by government policy that they just want someone who's going to address that".
A former CPS lawyer, Cunningham has been widely touted as Reform's potential candidate for the London mayoral elections in 2028. While she has not yet been approached by the party about a bid, she has confirmed that she would be interested in running. "Who wouldn't, right?" she told PoliticsHome.
Cunningham appeared to be one of the most popular figures at the conference. While speaking with PoliticsHome in Birmingham, a small queue admirers formed, with many women wanting to say just a few words to the rising star.
The councillor is hopeful that her candidacy would attract more support from young women. "Because women sometimes see politics as not for them. I know a lot of women say, 'Oh, I know nothing about politics, but I want to'. I'd love to get more women engaged."
Of the crowd at Reform conference, she added: "It's all like 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds here. It's amazing. And they're the future of our country. The fact that they're so engaged in politics and they're like 'Reform's given us a reason to get into politics' is amazing."
"Everything else is so toxic, whereas this is fresh and new"
So, what is attracting young women to the party?
Conference attendee Saffron Sims-Brydon, 22, used to be a Conservative but told PoliticsHome she "felt abandoned by the party I was meant to be representing".
"I no longer believed in the trajectory they were putting forward, and I felt lost for a very long time," she said. "When Reform started to emerge last year, I felt a new sense of energy and aspiration."
Sims-Brydon said the increased visibility of women in the party was encouraging young women to join Reform.
In May, Reform gained its first female MP when it won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, with Pochin beating her opponent by just six votes. In the mayoral contests, Jenkyns, a former Conservative minister, was successful. Reform also gained several young female councillors.
"With that visibility, I think that does help, because it means that it's not just the male rhetoric that a lot of the media has focused on. There's been plenty of articles, 'Is Reform anti-women?', and that just isn't the case anymore." Sims-Brydon clarified that she thought Reform had never been anti-women, but "that was the rhetoric thrust upon it".
Fleur, another young Reform member, told PoliticsHome: "I think on one hand, it's just the final option. Everything else is so toxic, whereas this is fresh and new and hasn't, really, hasn't betrayed anyone yet, has had the chance to betray anyone yet."
Before joining Reform, she had jumped between the Brexit Party and the Conservatives, before leaving the Tories once Kemi Badenoch was elected as party leader.
Fleur said she thought her support for Reform was not women-specific. Asked if she could ever see herself returning to the Tories, she was clear: "If Reform went badly, maybe. I think I'd be more likely to leave the country in total honesty."
